You both make great points about the current direction of Malden, and what needs to happen to turn things around. Unfortunately, the current mayor and councilors don't have the will nor the motivation to guide the city in a better direction.

I hope the new mayor and councilors will have the vision and plan necessary to coordinate all resources (Planning board, Licensing board, MPD, etc.) to make this city safer, more appealing to folks with disposable income - who would want to own a home here and put down roots -, and more attractive to more upscale businesses.

To paraphrase localguy and AnnieO, Malden should not be a haven for drug and alcohol treatment, and should not be a destination for section 8 housing either.

localguy: I've been here long enough to realize what something starts out as, it doesn't stay. The Granada Highlands used to be synonomous with luxury living. Now it is owned by another company and is becoming mostly sec. 8 housing. Until we get our act together to manage what we have, it seems ridiculous to add more apartments. Those 200+ units being proposed for the old Super Fitness site are just that-apartments. People buy condos and can rent them out to others as well. If you ask the person on the street what Malden needs more of, apartments will not be at the top of the list.

Now the council is asking to change the ordinance for parking spots required for building apt. buildings! I have been to those meetings and to hear the amigos try to make a case for lowering the spaces required tells me this is the tip of the iceberg of turning this city into one apt. building after another. Gary has on his platform as getting rid of city hall to replace it with housing and office, retail space. Enough already! Retail and office space are fine ideas, but NO MORE APARTMENTS! Until we can manage what we have, give it a rest.

"He talked about a project to map addiction in Malden using his patient base and Google maps. In a Powerpoint presentation that he created and provided to the Globe, he said that his business in that city [Malden] had grown 81 percent from 2009 to 2010."

No wonder we have a growing population of drug addicts in Malden...

And I hope the authorities also go after Damion P. Smith and his company Fresh Start Recovery Coalition Inc., who are partners in this alleged kick-back scheme. If this investigation leads them to closing down some of these sober houses in Malden, all the better!

criminal elements in malden growing, what do you expect from a mayor that has an indicted felon working as his assistant, an organized crime indicted felon at that. (extortion, home invasion, emebezzlment etc...) The mayor even denied that crime was a problem in the city never mind his office, and wanted to lay off officers. Thankfully he is gone soon, but there will be plenty of his cronies still running the city even after he goes. The FBI needs to clean this city up more than anything else

Anotherman: I found that part of the story shocking as well. It just goes to show this city was not putting up any kind of fight to reduce the attraction for these treatment centers. Who is responsible for allowing the opening of such a place? Is there some kind of monetary incentive for the city to have these places here? There is way more to this story than the ordinary citizen is aware of, I am sure.

Getactive: I don't know the specifics of her plans My guess is she has several ideas on how we can take back our city. I trust her on this. The admin and council in this city has paid lip service to the problems we face. Their idea of progress is: Let's just build more apartment buildings! Yeah, that's what we need here. Add more people to the mess we have now. Time for change, people! You either like it the way it is or are anxious to take back your city. It's that simple. Posted by AnnieOMalden

Annie, this is just my point. Nobody seems to know what her ideas or plans for a platform are. I know you trust her on this but for voters that don't know her how are we supposed to know what she is thinking?This whole campaign would be so much better if the candidates, and their supporters, only focused on their own credentials and platform instead of bashing the other person.

Maybe this should be questioned to her at the debate.Posted by LongTallSally

I'm sure it will, or at least I hope, but since the questions will be asked by the two panels, the question won't be asked by a regular citizen like me. I don't know who writes the questions but I know they aren't taken from the audience.

localguy: Now Melrose is getting in the act. In today's North section of the Globe it was reported they are building 300 apartments on Washington St. on the site of an old mill near Oak Grove. Not condos, apartments. At least Melrose will have to deal with any problems that may arise or additional students in their school. Better them than us!

In Response to Re: Enough of sober houses in Malden! : I will bite- what HAS Fallon done about this? I am curious, she must have done something correct? Come on now, she is going on two years and this seems like a hot topic, I need to hear what she has enacted? Was she too busy all stuffed into the firefighters pockets that she didn't notice? Other people live here too you know, not just firefighters!Posted by activemaldonian

If you read through the document, on page 6, there is a mention of the City of Malden being awarded a Heroin and Other Opioids Comprehensive Environmental Planning and Implementation grant by the state through the Human Services department of Malden, even though this program only covered communities in Essex county.

I was able to find out that this document was created in January 2005.Now, the question I have is why would the city of Malden go out of its way to apply for such a grant, knowing that the program did not cover its community?

So, Pats2012, you are partially wrong, the state does not dictate where a sober home is located in all instances, and it seems that a city/town can initiate the process to apply for a grant to implement a sober home in its community, which it DID in this case.

Hi all: I found the following link at the State of Massachusetts website: http://www.mass.gov/Deas/docs/publications/heroin_resource_guide.pdf If you read through the document, on page 6, there is a mention of the City of Malden being awarded a Heroin and Other Opioids Comprehensive Environmental Planning and Implementation grant by the state through the Human Services department of Malden, even though this program only covered communities in Essex county . I was able to find out that this document was created in January 2005. Now, the question I have is why would the city of Malden go out of its way to apply for such a grant, knowing that the program did not cover its community? So, Pats2012, you are partially wrong, the state does not dictate where a sober home is located in all instances, and it seems that a city/town can initiate the process to apply for a grant to implement a sober home in its community, which it DID in this case.Posted by anotherman

Thank you so much for finding this and posting it! It's tiresome to read the same old conjecture (they just magically appeared! We had no choice!) and blame (it's all because of the T!!!).

This goes a long, long way to answering the question of sober homes here - and the timeline coincides with resident's observations regarding the downturn in Malden (specifically, the uptick in crimes and the noticeable uptick in drug activity).

It's good to finally uncover some truth to why Malden faces such realities these days, instead on having to rely on hearsay and rumors, and despite the fact that the current city administration operates under such a blanket of secrecy, and has implemented policies that were and still are harmful to the community at large.

The state does put them in. The city can apply for a grant, but its not to start or build one. I wish the city could get rid of them all. The T police need to have a fort at the station because these people wonder and bother people like rabid dogs.

And since the state puts these homes here, the state should give us more money for police since a lot of the crimes are done by these people. That should be a grant.

I want to give a few thoughts. I like rail and subways. I enjoy reading and speculating the future of Boston and transportation on Archboston (forum talking about local construction news). I'm of the set that is not very excited of the development of infrastructure for cars that have risen since the 1950's or 1960's. The scared wasteland of parkings lots and car repair shops that is suppose to be town center is partially caused by car culture.

So it pains me to say... if Malden prevented the extension of the Orange Line as Melrose did, would many of the wrong elements arrived as it did?

I would like to say no, but there's a good chance that it is yes. With no public transporation, many wouldn't be able to move here in the first place. I state this with irony as this may include my parents and myself as we were poor when we first moved here.

It is not irrefutable however. I mean if one look at Brookline, Somerville and Cambridge, public transportation had an opposite effect. Chelsea have terrible public transportation, but the type who commits crime and do drugs are even more common there. Also my knowledge of Malden history have noted that Malden was already in decline before the Orange line ever came. The hope was that the Orange line could help Malden revive itself.

Personally, I think the we got the worst of both worlds in public transportation and cars. Malden failed to take advantage of the postives public transportation can do as Davis, Porter, Harvard, Central (?), the Green Line Brookline stations, or even Wellington (recently) for their location. So we got the worst of what public transporation can bring (making things affordable to people that sadly included the dysfuctional element) and never capitalize on the best elements (attract lots of people to patron local retail and restaurants). My knowledge from talking to older residents and reading a few old articles (I'm a history buff like that), the was the intention of what the Orange Line should do as Malden faced a declining town center. But somehow we completely failed in execution.

The Heroin/Opioid grants referenced here have nothing to do with building sober houses - they are for cities to plan education programs to prevent heroin addiction among kids. Here's a press release from Mitt Romney's office announcing the grants:

Humanist, you're right that Malden didn't take advantage of the T when it came in in 1975/76. We created a huge new government center that blocked access to Malden Square, rather than invited commuters to restaurants and shops (not to mention turn drivers away from a literally dead-end downtown), turning T riders out to the neighborhoods.

Note that Melrose refused to let the Orange Line in. I hate to say this, but the other end of that line is, or was, in a not-terribly-nice neighborhood of Boston, and it's a straight shot back and forth. Happily, some Roxbury sections are pretty pleasant now (see parts of Fort Hill, for instance).

But as Malden business declined, in part because of our bad responses to the T's arrival, tax revenues declined, so government has had to make hard choices about spending, and policing, general maintenance (contributing to a "safe" feeling), code enforcement, etc., have withered as well. That and the scads of cheap multi-unit housing within easy walking distance of two Orange Line stations - and, again, much of it is historic, but some comes from bad government decisions, such as the monster at the corner of Summer and Pleasant, and other monsters lining Florence - I'm arguing, had very much to do with what we now see as Malden's condition.

But remember, we'd been spoiled over the past half-century or so. Malden was historically home to some nasty neighborhoods - the industrial stretch along what's now Route 60 / Stop & Shop area; the tenements on lower Summer; even old Suffolk Square, which was in every sense a ghetto until urban renewal. We started cleaning up in the late '50s, early '60s, sometimes by fire, sometimes by government action, just in time for us to screw up the T's arrival and the rise of suburban malls.

I've never understood what made Chelsea Chelsea, but an older relative - in her 80s now - remembers when she grew up in Malden, "I'm going to Chelsea" was the smartass answer to someone asking your destination - smartass, because everyone knew that no one sane would really be going to Chelsea.

I actually wonder about the argument regarding the T. Melrose is nicer than Malden and doesn't have the T, fine. But Lynn is not nicer and also doesn't have a subway stop. Nor does Lowell or Lawrence.

And using Chelsea as an example, I'll reiterate the fact that the paramedics I know have stated boldly they'd rather work out of Chelsea than Malden because in Malden, the truck never stops running. At least in Chelsea they get a break.

Nevertheless, in light of the positive changes that communities on a train stop have managed, using the T as a scapegoat is just that. It may make it easier for people to move here from unsavory areas but the converse of that is that it's also a high point for artists and yuppies who don't want to drive. In areas where the T has been a boon, rent increases by as much as 40% the closer the place is to the T stop.

hellgirl: Melrose was nicer than Malden long before the T came here. With the T here it facilitated the location of these treatment and sober houses. I do not buy the argument we are helpless against these places. A strong administration and council would have found the tools necessary to make it more difficult for them to flourish here. So much is not open to us to know the "why" or "how" as the admin has kept the answers to themselves with a wink and a nod. This didn't happen overnight.

We got a blessing in disguise when the dr. in charge of two of the treatment centers got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he closed them down. What will prevent someone for opening two new ones in their place? What about those who worked for this guy? They know how it works. What will this city do to stop them?